Duane Roth

San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation is pleased to announce the 2015 recipient of the Duane Roth Renaissance Award. This award celebrates the memory of a beloved community leader who tirelessly championed our innovation eco-system and reframed how we view our region’s economic diversity. This award is presented to an organization for creating outstanding inventions, innovations or breakthroughs that have changed and improved the world around us.

We are honored to announceViaSat. as the 2015 Honoree of the Duane Roth Renaissance Award.

ViaSat specializes in engineering creative ways to connect people to communications applications that improve their productivity, quality of life – and even safety – when terrestrial networks are not practical, cost effective, or able to provide high-quality service. ViaSat is one of our region’s premier companies headquartered in Carlsbad employing more than 3,300 employees. In addition to providing the world’s highest capacity satellite, ViaSat is very involved in the community giving their time, talent and treasure to numerous non-profits in our community. ViaSat is a leader both in their technology and community service.

Please join us on June 4, 2015 as we celebrate ViaSat Inc. and their incredible achievements in connecting the world with better communications technology!

Some have asked us to issue a formal statement on behalf of EDC celebrating the life of our dear friend Duane Roth. We believe that CONNECT, BIOCOM and others have already done so quite beautifully. So in a less formal fashion, I would like to share the following thoughts and reflections...

To try to write down what Duane Roth meant to San Diego Regional EDC, and our entire binational economic development community, is next to impossible.

As most of you know, Duane was a longtime board member. He was our past chair. He was our partner on countless projects and our constant supporter behind the scenes. He was an incredible thinker. He was a visionary in the truest sense of the word. He was our motivator, our agitator and our confidant. But above all, he was our friend.

For me personally, having the opportunity to work so closely with Duane for the past 19 months has turned out to be a greater blessing than I could have ever imagined. Looking back, it seems as if Duane and I were doing something together just about every day.

We spoke on countless panels together--telling the story of our traded economies. We worked to create a collaborative economic development agenda for our organizations and our region. We planned meetings together. We supported each other's grant writing and fundraising efforts. We traveled together and lobbied together. And along the way, we spent a lot of time talking about our work, our economy and our community.

Duane changed the way we think and talk about San Diego. His personality and professional will made us bigger, stronger and better. He believed we were great and he made sure the world knew that. He used his influence to open doors, his intellect to create opportunities and his determination to earn broad-reaching respect and admiration.

Duane always went about everything he did with a sense of importance and urgency. At times, none of us could move fast enough for him. In hindsight, it's almost as if he knew that he had very little time to waste.

Like many, I will spend the days ahead thinking about what role I can play in carrying on his legacy. I will take the messages that I have heard him share with so many and ensure that I continue to share them with everyone I can. I will do my very best to see through the projects we started together and I will constantly try to do for others what Duane did for me.

On Saturday, when I first learned that Duane had passed away, I immediately thought of a quote from John Steinbeck that I have always loved. It reads:

"It is so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone."

As dark as it may seem today, I can't help but think of how lucky we all are for having shared this remarkable light.

I will never forget Duane. I will never forget what he shared with me and what he taught me. And in saying goodbye, I can only think of the words of the Irish Blessing I learned as a child: "...until we meet again, may God always hold you in the palm of His hand."